


Know Your Fears (as I do mine)

by Sky_King



Category: Dr. STONE (Anime), Dr. STONE (Manga)
Genre: Asagiri Gen and his thousand masks, Character Study, Distrust, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Heart-to-Heart, M/M, Pre-Slash, Senkuu sees through them anyway, Set during the Stone Wars, Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:07:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25581826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sky_King/pseuds/Sky_King
Summary: Senkuu doesn't like liars.So of course he has to confront Gen about it.
Relationships: Asagiri Gen & Ishigami Senkuu, Asagiri Gen/Ishigami Senkuu
Comments: 3
Kudos: 109
Collections: Parallels Fanworks Exchange 2020





	Know Your Fears (as I do mine)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Moon_Blitz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moon_Blitz/gifts).



Winter has finally come, like a cold and silent blanket falling like a curtain call. With it, everything has briefly returned back to normal.

By this point, Asagiri Gen has long since become a permanent fixture by Senkuu’s side.

Perhaps Senkuu should have realized sooner. Perhaps he wasn’t as observing as a scientist shout be. But in this brief lull before the war, he finally realizes what should have been blatantly obvious.

Behind the flamboyance and the loud proclamations, Asagiri Gen hides in plain sight.

He jokes and blends in so well with everyone in the village that it takes Senkuu far too long to realize that he doesn’t belong.

Like a misshapen sock, identical to all the other ones in the drawer, but the only one missing its pair.

He’s there, he’s part of the conversation. But he’s still an Outsider in the villagers’ eyes.

Which shouldn’t have been that big of an issue. If the Mentalist has decided to stay on the edge by his own volition, there’s nothing he can do to fix it.

But whenever night comes, Gen disappears.

He would scamper off to Senkuu’s and Chrome’s hut, still the only place with artificial light.

Still the only place that wasn’t drowned in suffocating darkness.

The villagers– Ginrou, Magma, even Kohaku–, would laugh at him. Would playfully shove him as they call him a scaredy-cat, and a wimp. They say that old-timers are too soft around the edges.

And Gen laughs.

He grins sheepishly as he nods, pastes on a smile as he plays along and disappears as the punchline of some joke only he is privy to.

The realization clocks him on the head, like a misshapen projectile. And when he realizes, when he _sees_ the way he puts a barrier between them all, it’s suddenly too obvious.

And he wonders.

He has always been awkward with human interaction– Yuzuriha and Taiju notwithstanding. But it was statistically improbable that nobody, not a single person in this village had not realized before him.

He wonders if it was simply that they couldn’t see past his mischief.

He wonders if they simply did not want to.

Because wasn't it _obvious_?

(Like a secret hidden in plain sight.)

Senkuu’s never been one to do things by halves, though. And if he had promised Gen he would be accepted into the village, if he had promised him a safe place away from murderers and traitors, and people worse than, he needed to shine light in the darkness swirling in his eyes.

He stops trying to be subtle when they were having a very late lunch, their phone finally complete, and Gen laughs when Kohaku calls him “a baby, for being scared of the night.”

The Mentalist sighs as if embarrassed of being caught, he bows in farewell, and Senkuu gives him a five minute head start before he gets up and follows after him, ignoring his other friends’ complaints.

The Mentalist is distracted enough that he doesn’t even hear Senkuu stumbling, which is dumb but also helpful.

He does consider berating him for being so careless at some point, because they’re already inside Chrome’s hut when Senkuu clears his throat and Gen nearly jumps through the roof.

He glares at him, annoyed and startled, half a reprimand on his lips, but Senkuu bulldozes right past.

"Why did you lie?"

Gen stumbles over his words rather dramatically, a question in his eyes. Senkuu isn’t in the mood for carefree teasing, so he doesn’t say anything else.

Without banter to hide behind, the Mentalist hesitates. He frowns, quiet and worried, holding his masks in his hands, unsure which one to use. Senkuu doesn't seem angry so he just lets his lips peel in a smile.

"When did I ever?"

Senkuu just sighs, looks over his shoulder, as if checking that nobody has followed them and he plops down on Gen’s bed.

"You're not scared of the dark." He begins, voice cutting and unforgiving. Gen flinches as those red eyes pierce his soul. "It's not the darkness you fear. It's waking up, not knowing where you are, not understanding how you got there, and not finding anybody else. It's going hungry, unable to find food, or water, or shelter and knowing your life is in serious danger. And knowing there is nobody in this vast land who could help you."

A cold sweat breaks out on Gen's skin, both at the reminder, and the eerie accuracy of his every word, hammering down his defenses.

Senkuu is still staring at him, unblinking. He continues.

"It's not the darkness, but the fact that night comes and you're alone and despairing and you can't even see that well in the darkness. It's the fact that the animals and other unknown terrors come alive at night, and you have no way of defending yourself."

Gen is no longer looking at him, clenched hands by his sides.

"It's the fact that you know you're alone, and the statues won't ever become people no matter how hard you pray and-"

Senkuu doesn't try to shake off Gen's hands on his mouth, begging for his silence. He just stares at the other teen, shaking, shivering, _miserable_ and begins to feel regret at how he had worded himself.

He waits a beat, before gently grabbing those cold hands to say, "I know how you felt, Gen. What I just described was... what I just described were my own experiences before Taiju came back. Before Yuzuriha. Those months and months in which I was lost, cold and scared and not knowing what to do."

Senkuu looks down, still holding his hands. "It's awful and it sucked big time. And I don't think you have to be ashamed of it. You don't have to lie about it. What are they even going to say? It was hard, it was dangerous, yet here we are.”

He blinks as his own words echo in his brain. “Here we are,” he repeats. “We’re alive, we’re together and we’re on our way to bring civilization back. You’re not alone, Gen, and neither am I. It’s even better that now there’s someone who knows what I’ve been through. I think you know psychology better than I do, but I’m pretty sure that’s a good thing for both our psyches.”  
  


Gen snorts, and cocks his head, with a raised eyebrow. Senkuu can’t help but think that his eyes are glittering, like a constellation shining through the darkness. “Elly-ray? Is this why you told me this? Some convoluted plan to make us more efficient?”

Senkuu looks away, somehow embarrassed. But he doesn’t leave. He wraps his calloused fingers around slender wrists and pulls him down with him.

The mentalist is like a block of ice– cold and unmoving. It’s almost pathetic how Senkuu isn’t doing much better, as he tries throwing an arm around his shoulders and pulling him closer.

“I hear physical contact is also good.”

Gen laughs, wet, quiet, but real. He waits just a beat before nudging his trapped arm free and throwing it around Senkuu in return. Like a little kid, Senkuu immediately leans his head on his shoulder.

“You’re a dumbass,” Gen adds before the silence can settle.

“Excuse me, I’m a mad scientist that gave you a cola in this science-less world.”

“It was a rather crappy cola.”

Despite this being nothing but pointless banter, Senkuu manages to sound offended. “ _You_ try making it out of wild cilantro and with rustic equipment.”

“I’m lying,” He says, leaning his head against Senkuu’s. “It was perfect.”

“Damn right it was.” The scientist grins. He’s comfortable, he suddenly thinks. He doesn’t want to leave. “But I’ll keep working hard, and make cola after cola until I perfect it. That way you won’t betray us, right?”

Gen is silent for a moment.

With nobody to see him, Gen slips off his mask.

“I’d rather never be able to drink Cola, than be alone in the universe again.”

“You have me,” Senkuu says, cringing because, “I-I mean, you have us-“

“I have you.” Gen says, and Senkuu feels a rush of warmth in his chest. “And I guess you have me as well. If you promise me I don’t ever have to see another lightless night alone.”

Senkuu sighs, content and comfortable as he closes his eyes. ”I promise.”

And Gen closes his eyes as well, and that is how they would spend their first night together.

The first, of many more.


End file.
